


Lost and Found

by cranes



Category: Naruto
Genre: Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-10
Updated: 2013-10-10
Packaged: 2017-12-28 23:30:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/998206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cranes/pseuds/cranes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Minato and Kakashi's reunion on the battlefield comes at a cost.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lost and Found

The only time Minato ever let Kakashi sleep in his bed was when Kakashi was seven years old and stumbled into his house with blood smearing his shirt. His eyes were cold and his face was clean as a slate, but there was a slight tremor in the red-stained hands ( _a sort of rattling shaking_ ) that Minato almost didn’t notice, at first _—_ almost.

“My dad’s dead,” said Kakashi sullenly, like it was nothing more than being sent to bed without supper.

Minato wanted to be surprised. _Honestly_ , _truly_ , he wanted to, but there was nothing but a dull, dead feeling in the pit of his stomach and an aching sadness for Kakashi. It wasn’t shocking to hear those words, even from small and veiled lips. Sakumo had been dead for months now. This was just the death certificate.

There were times when Minato could admit he wanted to hate the man. Abandoning his kid? What _right_ did he have? There was a clear responsibility, here, and it was the thin, bloodied child standing in front of him with lost grey eyes and shaking hands, not _honour_ , or whatever the _hell_ was in Sakumo’s mind when he’d taken his life. _God,_ he wanted to hate him.

But Minato couldn’t. Sakumo had the same lost grey eyes as Kakashi, after all.

“I’ll call the hospital,” Minato had told Kakashi. He pulled the boy into his arms and let his breath fall down Kakashi’s neck as he picked him up, shifting the light burden a little to the side. He made his way to the kitchen and called Tsunade, then Kushina. Then he was setting Kakashi down on a chair and sighing heavily, careful not to make eye contact with the broken child before him.

“Do you want to go back?” he asked. Kakashi just shook his head mutely.

Minato ran his fingers through his hair. The hospital would probably be best _—_ Kakashi was thin and pale, and dark circles ran under his eyes. But there was no way he was leaving Kakashi’s side now _—_ not like the dick of a dad that Sakumo was.

“Alright,” he'd said finally, “you can stay here. I’ll sleep on the couch.”

Of course, it didn’t happen that way. Looking back, Minato can’t imagine he ever thought it would. An hour later Kushina had come home to find the two sprawled together on Minato’s single bed, Kakashi’s hand buried in Minato’s and his head pulled tight under Minato’s chin.

Being Kushina, she didn’t wake them. When Minato woke in the morning, there was yet another hand in his.

* * *

 

That hand is gone now, like the woman who held it. But Minato stands tall because he can see his wife in his son’s eyes, can feel her spirit in Naruto’s voice. And even though the whole world is being shot to hell, it feels right, like this was the way it was supposed to be all along.

Minato wonders if Kakashi died happy.

He’s not here _—_ in fact, Minato recognizes next to no one on the battlefield, save his son. Minato wonders if Kakashi fell in love and had children and taught a team of his own. Naruto is seventeen. That’s plenty of time to become happy.

Minato doubts he ever was.

And he knows it’s his fault.

Abandoning a child shouldn’t be so easy. Minato wanted to hate Sakumo for it, hates himself even now. Naruto is strong and happy despite being left behind _—_ but none of that changes the fact that _Kakashi isn’t here._ He isn’t here, and it’s Minato’s fault, he knows it, knows it like he knows Naruto will succeed him in every way possible.

 _I’m sorry, Kakashi,_ he thinks, and at the same time _I love you_ sears through his brain.

All of a sudden, the world explodes in white.

And Kakashi is standing there before him.

His back is towards Minato, so Minato can only imagine the look in his eyes as he plunges the kunai into Obito, the blood spurting out and staining his shirt. His jounin jacket is gone, his clothes ripped and torn. Minato can’t see the mask, hopes to God it’s not there anymore, and he's running, running towards Kakashi, towards the son who was never his to begin with. (The words in his mind are  _please please please_ but his lips remain strung in a thin, firm line.)

Obito freezes, then reaches for Kakashi’s throat. And Kakashi is weakened, and tired, and Minato can see Kakashi’s eyes now so he can see that they are sad and grey and lost as they were the day Sakumo died. They’re sad and grey and lost as the father who abandoned him.

Kakashi isn’t going to fight back, Minato realizes, like a sucker punch to the gut.

Kakashi is going to let Obito kill him because he thinks it’s what he deserves, and Minato knows, knows, _knows_ he’s going to be too late, again, just like he is every time Kakashi needs him. He’s going to abandon him like every other time in Kakashi’s life.

A single image flashes behind his eyes.

Then Minato finds himself crammed _tight_ between Kakashi and Obito.

Without thinking, Minato shoves Obito away and catches Kakashi in his arms, clinging, desperate. He doesn’t know how he made it in time. Not until he sees the kunai Kakashi is gripping in his hand like it’s the most important thing in the world to him, and recognizes the red seal down that runs down the side.

Kakashi’s eyes are heavy, soft.

“Kashi-kun,” Minato whispers, shaking him. “Kakashi, come on, come _on_.”

Those sad, lost grey eyes open slowly.

And then, for the first time since Minato’s known him, they aren’t lost anymore.

* * *

_owari_


End file.
